The present invention relates to a system for processing commercial or financial transactions and, specifically, to an automated banking system which includes a central processor that is timeshared by a plurality of local transaction processors, wherein each local transaction processor is timeshared by a plurality of transaction input/output stations accessible to card-carrying customers.
Due to competition, financial institutions must constantly improve the quality of their services in order to keep present customers and attract new customers. To accomplish this objective, banks, for example, have resorted to establishment of branch offices. By using branch offices, banks are able to make their services more convenient to present customers in outlying areas, rather than requiring them to utilize a central location. They are also able to attract new customers who seek a conveniently located bank. However, branch banking is expensive since each branch office requires substantial capital investment and operational expense. In their search for new business methods to reduce the cost of their financial services, banks have installed, for example, manned, or staffed, counters in supermarkets, shopping center malls, and airports.
A pressure on banks for added services stems from customer's inability to satisfy their banking needs during normal banking hours except at considerable inconvenience, such as when customers must interrupt their work to journey to the bank during normal banking hours because banking hours coincide with their working hours. Thus, customers want extended banking hours or after-hours banking. Additionally, most banks are closed on Saturday and Sunday, yet a substantial share of purchases of consumer goods occurs on weekends. As a result, customers want access to their bank on weekends. Customers also wish to transact business around-the-clock at locations such as hospitals, hotels, bus depots, airports, etc. Thus, customer's demand for after-hours, weekend, and around-the-clock banking services has increased the problem banks have in satisfying their customers.
To meet these needs banks have begun to use unmanned, automated card-responsive banking equipment. Voss et al., "Off-Line Cash Dispenser and Banking System," U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,277 disclosed such an unmanned, automated card-responsive teller. The teller unit is completely self-contained, relying on data stored on the customer's card and/or stored locally in a memory at the site of the installation to limit the nature and/or amount of transactions. Such equipment can be located at a remote location to serve as a branch office at significantly reduced capital investment and operational expense, or outside a bank building for use when the bank is closed. In either case, the customer receives the benefit of after-hours, weekend, and around-the-clock banking services, including cash withdrawal, fund transfer, and payment and deposit transactions.
While these teller units have been extremely useful, they are not without limitations. For example, the immediate centralized accounting capability of conventional teller-assisted banking systems, which facilitates maintenance of an up-to-date running balance of each customer's account, is absent. Moreover, the teller unit must operate under limitations imposed by the types and amounts of data which are encoded on the customer's card and which can be stored locally in the teller unit memory. To increase the flexibility of the teller unit by increasing the size of the memory and/or the amount of hardware increases the cost.
An even more recent development in automated banking systems is described in Slater et al. U.S. Ser. No. 722,741 Sept. 13, 1976) which is entitled "On-line/Off-line Automated Banking System." Slater et al. comprehend a plurality of remotely located card-responsive transaction and cash dispensing units which are each interconnected with a central unit via a communication network. The Slater et al. system provides "off-line" operation of the remote unit when access to the central unit is not available or desired. In the "off-line" mode, the remote unit does not communicate with the central unit. In the "off-line" mode, the remote unit is responsive to insertion of a customer's card to initiate a series of one or more customer transactions, including cash withdrawal, fund transfer between accounts, and deposit and payment transactions, based on an evaluation of data encoded on the customer's card and the customer's responses to instruction messages. The card includes a code which the remote unit uses to identify the transactions from among which the remote unit permits the customer to select. The card also includes data which the remote unit uses to process a customer-entered transaction. In the "off-line" mode the remote unit records customer transaction data for all "off-line" transactions. As distinguished from previous "off-line" systems, the remote unit is able to send the transaction data in a series of completion messages to the central unit when the system resumes "on-line" operation.
The Slater et al. system provides "on-line" operation of the remote unit when access to the central unit is available. In the "on-line" mode, the remote unit communicates with the central unit. The remote unit requests account descriptions, which identify the customer's accounts, account balances, and the central unit sends this data to the remote unit. The remote unit is responsive to receipt of the reply from the central unit to initiate a series of one or more customer transactions based on an evaluation of data which the central unit sent and the customer's responses to instructional messages. The remote unit uses the account descriptions to identify the transactions from among which the remote unit permits the customer to select. The remote unit uses the account balances and other data which the central unit may send to process a customer-entered transaction.
The Slater et al. system requires a single data communication from the remote unit to the central unit and a single data communication from the central unit to the remote unit on the "on-line" mode to enable the remote unit to process a series of one or more transactions which a customer selects. This reduces central unit processing time and system communication time. Such an "on-line" system is to be contrasted with prior art schemes in which the central unit, rather than the remote unit, determines the propriety of the transaction by comparison at the central unit of (a) transaction data sent by the remote unit and (b) account data stored at the central unit, and in which the central unit thereafter sends an "approval" or "disapproval" reply to the remote unit which in response grants or denies the customer request, depending upon whether it was approved or disapproved by the central unit. Once the transactions are completed at the remote unit, a single transmission of the nature and amount of the transaction to the central unit will suffice to permit the central unit records to be updated to reflect the transaction.
While the Slater et al. system provides significant advantages over prior art "off-line" and "on-line" systems, the system is relatively expensive.
Part of the expense of the Slater et al. system is due to the fact that each remote unit is an integrated processor and customer input/output terminal. The processor both processes transactions and supervises input functions, such as to elicit customer responses which the processor needs to process a customer transaction and output functions, such as to print transaction receipts, etc. A greater percentage of processor time is spent on supervision of simple yet slow input/output functions, such as displaying messages which elicit customer responses, than on more complicated but faster data processing operations. Hence, expensive data processing elements are constantly awaiting the completion of input/output functions during the transaction sequence. This means that the remote unit operates somewhat inefficiently and that the system is costly in terms of the productive use which is derived from the investment in data processing elements and, therefore, the productive use which is derived from overall investment in the system. Each remote unit in the Slater et al. system includes, in addition to registers which are used in processing transactions, a memory with records which are accessed when the remote unit performs certain checks on an inserted card, such as a determination whether the card is lost or stolen, fraudulently reproduced, etc. The fact that a memory must be provided for each remote unit increases the investment in each remote unit and, therefore, the overall investment in the system.
Also, if it is necessary to update the records in the memories at the Slater et al. remote units, for example, it is necessary to update the records which relate to lost or stolen cards, personnel must visit each installation and enter additions and deletions by means of a console. This results in a high system operating cost since personnel must be dispatched to each remote unit. Moreover, it is conceivable that a breach in the security of the system might occur in the event that the records in the memories at the remote units are not updated at the same time, since, for example, a stolen card could be used at remote units which had not yet been visited by bank personnel whereas the stolen card could not be used at remote units which had been visited. Even in the situation where the records in the memories at the remote units are updated by the central unit, the system operating cost could be high if a significant amount of central and remote unit time and communication time is required to enter additions and deletions. Nevertheless, the aforementioned problem with regard to a potential breach of security would still exist due to the method of polling which is used in the Slater et al. system whereby each remote unit memory is updated individually.
In the same vein, it is also necessary for personnel to visit the remote units of the Slater et al. system to obtain the hard copy or machine readable transaction records which are prepared by the remote units and which are used to verify transactions that the remote units send to the central unit during the on-line mode of operation. This leads to high system operating cost since personnel must be dispatched to each remote unit.
Finally, when the Slater et al. system is in the on-line mode of operation, the remote units are each polled by the central unit. Since each remote unit is capable of accommodating only one customer at a time, the Slater et al. system will have many remote units if the financial institution has a large number of customers so that these customers can have access to the service which is provided by the automated banking system. This results in line-loading of the central unit since the central unit sporatically polls each remote unit to determine whether or not a customer is actually using the remote unit. If the time period between polls is significant, the remote unit may also have to await data which the central unit sends to the remote unit in response to a request message during "on-line" operation. Hence, a customer may have to wait to perform his transactions while the central unit polls other remote units which are not in use.
One objective of the present invention is to provide an alternative to branch banking by providing automated customer stations in remote areas.
A second objective is to provide automated customer stations for the transaction of banking business after normal bank hours, on weekends, and around-the-clock.
An additional objective is to provide a local processor which is timeshared by a plurality of customer stations so that low-cost customer stations, which do not have data processing elements or memory, can be employed.
Another objective is to provide a local processor which is timeshared by a plurality of customer stations and which executes faster data processing functions associated with a transaction but relegates slower input/output functions associated with a transaction to a customer station, to reduce demand on the local processor by a customer station to a minimum and to maximize use of timeshared data processing elements at the local processor by the plurality of customer stations.
An additional objective is to provide a local processor which is timeshared by a plurality of customer stations and which includes a memory with card data check and update records so that these records can be readily and conveniently changed to enhance system security and reduce system operating expense.
Another objective is to provide a local transaction processor which is timeshared by a plurality of customer stations and which operates as a central accounting station for transactions which are performed by customers at the plurality of customer stations.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a local processor which is timeshared by a plurality of customer stations and which is operable in both an "off-line" mode and an "on-line" mode; that is, a local processor which is operable to process transactions either with or without communication with a central processor, depending on the availability of the central processor, which is often needed by the bank for other purposes and unavailable to assist with customer transactions.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a local processor which is timeshared by a plurality of customer stations and operates to economize the demand on the central processor and communication time with the central processor by processing one or more customer transactions following each data transmission from the central processor and which, in the "on-line" mode reduces line-loading of the central processor by processing communication demands incident to the use of any of a plurality of customer stations.